By RoseAnn Scotti
The Trump administration is suing New Jersey to block its rules that limit law enforcement cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and allow criminal aliens to escape into our communities.
According to U.S. Attorney General William Barr, these policies are textbook examples of misguided ideology triumphing over common sense law enforcement and are created by “idealistic” public officials who have offered “misleading rhetoric” to justify them.
I believe the attorney general is being kind when he views these actions as those of “idealistic public officials.”
I believe they are more the work of disingenuous politicians who will do everything to fool citizens into thinking they are working in their best interest, when they are really counting a vote here and a vote there as they march toward their next election victory.
The Murphy administration’s policies put the interests of illegal aliens above all legal residents. Granting illegal aliens taxpayer funded legal aid and granting them college tuition assistance are two of the most egregious and a slap in the face to beleaguered New Jersey taxpayers.
The march toward a sanctuary state was actually commenced back in 2017 as reported in a Feb. 14 article: “In light of President Trump’s recent crackdown on sanctuary cities, the state Senate planned a vote Monday on a bill that would reimburse municipalities if they lose any federal funding because they shield undocumented residents from U.S immigration authorities.”
The author of the bill was state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, at that time a Murphy ally, who was calling for a boycott of the President’s executive order ordering local law enforcement to cooperate with ICE in the apprehension of criminal illegal aliens.
Sweeney vowed to post the bill again when all Democrat senators were present.
“It’ll pass,” he said.
I guess taxpayers’ pockets were not picked on that one because Democrats had to put on sheepskins to face the electorate in November.
In another example of disingenuous duplicity, Sweeney has spent time traveling around the state pontificating about how he was going to finally rein in property taxes with a plan to regionalize the administrative functions of K-8 school districts and give us relief from our school tax burden.
Sounds like a good idea to me. However, it was announced recently that legislative action on the plan was postponed until after the November elections.
Why? Probably because the Democrats had been pushing legislation that would allow certain school districts to exceed the 2% cap on property tax increases without going to voters.
I guess we will have to hold our breath a bit more so we don’t drown; or at least hold it until we turn New Jersey red.
RoseAnn Scotti is a resident of Colts Neck.